


Twin Engines

by rosesreylo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, F/M, Fluff, Love, Resistance Member Ben Solo, Reylo - Freeform, Teasing, X-Wing(s), resistance member rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-18 14:02:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13683162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesreylo/pseuds/rosesreylo
Summary: An AU where Ben Solo and Rey are both resistance pilots Will they be able to find time for pursuits of the heart in their war against the First Order? Get ready for some good old-fashioned, feel-good fluff.





	1. Clogged Injector

“Move slow, or I’ll end you.” Rey said in as menacing a tone as she could muster, the barrel of her blaster pressed against a mop of black hair. “Now, back up, nice and slow.” Her hostage slowly removed his head from the open hatch on the side of her x-wing, backing up a few paces as she commanded.  


“Can I turn around?”  


“Yes.”  


As the stranger turned on his heels, Rey was taken aback by the softness that lingered in the man’s brown eyes. The structure of his face, his jaw, cheekbones, were all well-defined, but the pale tint to his skin and the slight quiver on his lips made her realize that he wouldn’t attempt to attack her. This man was worried.  


“Hi, I’m Ben.”  


He extended his hand to her in greeting, and although she lowered her blaster, Rey made no move to take his hand.  


“Hello, Ben. Care to tell me why I should be shaking hands with a spy from the First Order?”  


“A spy?!” Her words seemed to wound him deeply. “Why the hell do you think that?”  


“Well, I can’t see any reason for someone with the resistance to be sabotaging my ship.”  


“Sabotaging? Is that what you think I’m doing?!” He raised his voice slightly, indignant at the affront to his good intentions. Rey pressed her blaster against his chest.  


“Shout at me again and I’ll burn a hole in your chest!”  


Ben yelped, backing up and hitting his head on the wing of her ship with a sharp thud. As he recoiled, his thick-rimmed glasses went clattering to the floor.  
“Ow! Oh…”  


Rey sighed, sticking her blaster into the holster at her hip. “Alright, if you weren’t sabotaging my ship, just what do you think you were doing rooting around inside it?”  


“Trying to fix it!” Ben exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head as his eyes scanned the ground for his glasses.  


“Fix it? It doesn’t need fixing. I was flying it last night!” Rey pushed him aside, popping her head into the hatch to look over the mass of wires and flickering circuitry. Did he see something she didn’t?  


“I’m surprised it didn’t crash on you. She’s showing huge signs of wear and tear.” Ben said, a new sense of confidence filling his voice. This was his area of expertise, after all. Rey turned her head towards him, sliding to the left to make room for him to stick his head in the hatch as well.  


“Show me.” She said somewhat defensively. A pilot with a faulty ship wasn’t much of a pilot, and she took his concerns to heart. Ben swallowed before coming closer somewhat reluctantly, sticking his head into the maintenance hatch alongside Rey. His proximity to her felt strange. Her face looked to be sculpted from a soft chunk of moonstone, moulded and tempered with determination. Her hair was a beautiful hazel, the same color as her eyes. At least, he thought her eyes were hazel. It was a little difficult to tell without his glasses.  


“Ben?” She uttered his name with surprising softness, but in the close proximity of the maintenance hatch, it seemed louder than it should as it filled the small space. No one had ever said his name like that.  


“Yes…” He answered dreamily.  


“You’re staring at me.”  


He came crashing back to reality as all the blood rushed to his face in a fierce blush. “N-No, I’m not! I-I-I was trying to l-look at the p-panel behind you!” He stammered quickly. The sight of his blusterous denial brought a grin to Rey’s face, and the way she giggled only served to make his face redder.  


“Easy, I’m just teasing.” She said with humor in her voice. She was positive that he wasn’t a spy at this point. Someone so soft wouldn’t last long in the First Order. “Go on, show me what’s wrong with my ship.”  


Ben took a deep breath before pointing to a small cylindrical device. “Well, your reactant injector is absolutely clogged. I’d be surprised if it was still operational.”  
Rey raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Frankly, Ben expected that to be explanation enough, but decided to continue when it looked like she was waiting for him to say more. “Um, here’s the centrifugal reactant fusion chamber that the injector feeds into, right next to the ionization chamber.” Once he had begun to speak about the technical components of the x-wing’s engine, Ben’s bumbling nature dissolved. Rey was surprised. He seemed like a different man. “If your injector fails to start,” He continued, “best case scenario, the reactor doesn’t start up and no fuel gets fed to your engines. Worst case scenario, enough cold fuel gets pushed through to the 5L5 fusial thrust Split-Engines and you start up, only to break down in the vacuum of space.”  


“The…5L5 fus…fus...”  


“5L5 fusial thrust Split-Engines.” Ben finished her sentence as she stumbled over the complicated terminology. “You know, the four, big engines at the back of the ship?”  


“Of course I do!” She retorted indignantly. “Every pilot knows that the engine is the heart of the ship.”  


“The heart of the ship.” He repeated, a tiny smile lifting the corner of his mouth. “I like that.”  


“So, worst case, my ship breaks down in space and I become stranded?” Rey asked with a raised eyebrow.  


“Actually, what would be even worse would be if your speed drops during a hyperspace jump, and you’d be torn apart.” He concluded, removing his head from the inside of the ship, Rey following him a moment later. Frankly, she was stunned. She knew plenty about her ship, but he seemed to speak about this stuff as commonly as talking about what he had for breakfast. She was intrigued.  


“So, you were trying to clean out the reactant injector.” The pilot mumbled. She was ashamed of how she had reacted, a little color rising to her cheeks.  


“That’s right. I just wanted to help.”  


“Well, let me return the favor...I’m Rey, by the way.”  


“Nice to meet you-” Before Ben could say more, Rey had gotten down on her knees. Oh, oh my gosh, was this really happening? Don’t panic, he reminded himself. The older pilots had told him that this would happen. Just take things slow and don’t push the back of her head- Oh. She was standing back up, with his glasses in hand. His glasses!  


“Here.”  


“O-Oh, thank you.” He grasped his glasses, putting them back in their proper place. As the world came back into focus, he got a better look at her eyes. They were surprisingly deep, as if there was something shining deep inside, something soft and warm. But he wouldn’t make the same mistake of staring at her for so long twice.  


“I’m about to head to lunch. Want to come with? I’ll buy your food. I have to repay you for saving my life, after all.” Rey thumped his chest lightly and turned to start walking away. A nervous smile lifted the corners of Ben’s mouth.  


“You want me to come eat with you? Ten minutes ago, you were threatening to kill me.”  


“I don’t kill nerds.” She said with a grin, turning her head to look back at him. “You coming? Or are you just going to admire the view all day?”  


It took Ben a moment to understand what she meant, but once he did, he ran to catch up with her, his face reddening again. A grin tugged at Rey’s lip. This was going to be fun.


	2. Black Sheep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey learns a little bit about Ben, and the two prepare to tackle a new mission.

The canteen of the D’Qar resistance base wasn’t exactly a lavish dining hall, but it offered a stunning view of the verdant hills and treeline while one ate. Once they had gotten their food, Rey took Ben far from the clatter and din of the kitchen, finding a table that hugged the rail separating the open-air eating area from a nasty thirty foot drop. She liked the way the humid air gently caressed her face, and she was self-conscious about other people watching her eat. Ben seemed to be self-conscious about everything, so she supposed that this would be an exception.  
“No coffee for you?” She asked, as Ben lifted his travel mug that he had filled up with green tea.  
“I don’t like the taste.” He replied as he shook his head.  
Well, he wasn’t much of a conversationalist. Rey took a moment to observe him as he started picking at his salad. Boring food, messy hair, reserved in form and voice. He would fit better in a library sorting through fidgety old holocrons than he fit into the orange jumpsuit of an x-wing pilot, which hung loosely from his body. She wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t seen him around before. A guy like him would get lost in the crowd.  
“Can I ask you something?”  
“Yes.”  
“How come I haven’t seen you around before?” She decided it was more polite than asking “What the hell are you doing here?”  
“It’s my first day.” Ben replied nonchalantly, the corners of his mouth curling upward into the ghost of a smile. “It was a hell of an orientation, jamming your gun in my back and threatening to kill me.”  
Rey’s mouth dropped open. He was teasing her! Once her shock was visualized, a delighted chuckle arose from Ben’s lips. He had a soft laugh.  
“Hey!” She huffed with indignance. “It’s not my fault. A pilot’s ship is their baby, and seeing a little…black sheep rooting around my baby put me on edge.”  
She thought Ben’s face was about to erupt like a volcano due to how red he became. He was easily flustered, the pilot realized with a grin.  
“Black Sheep?!” Ben repeated, clearly not enjoying his new nickname. “Why?” His hand had already lifted to tug at a lock of his hair self-consciously. “Is it because of my hair?”  
“It is.” Rey clicked her tongue, her grin just growing bigger. “Your black, fluffy mop of hair.” It was her turn to giggle as Ben tried to dismiss his embarrassment. She would give him a break, the poor guy needed it.  
“So, how come you’re so good with tech? I mean, I thought I had a good handle on that stuff, before you opened your mouth.”  
Oh thank god, Ben thought, feeling a flood of relief. Finally, something he could talk about with a certain sense of ease. Rey seemed hellbent on toying with him, and he jumped at the chance to present himself as competent at something. “Well, my dad taught me to fly at a young age. His ship felt like a second home to me. I became a great pilot before long, but I was always...I was never considered a great pilot in my own right, you know? I wasn’t Ben, I was ‘Han Solo’s son’, it was just expected of me to be a good pilot. I needed to do something to outshine my dad. Not because he isn’t great! He’s the bravest man I’ve ever met.” He smiled softly, but his eyes were dark. It was an uncomfortable memory for him to recount, some unresolved pain was lingering on his words. “Anyway. I needed to become great in my own right, so I turned to the specs. I spent hours on the millenium falcon, peering over circuit boards, compensators and sublight engines. When I knew that ship better than I knew myself, I turned to studying holocrons. And now, I’m good at it.” He shrugged, the pollution of his smile by sadness waning away. “I like it, the technical stuff. Everything is connected, and it all makes sense.”  
Rey’s mouth was wide open in a sharp expression of disbelief.  
“What’s wrong?” Ben asked, briefly wondering if he had said something to upset her.  
“Your father is HAN SOLO?!” She was unable to mitigate her excitement, causing a few distant resistance pilots to turn their head at the mention of the famous general of the rebellion.  
“Oh god.” Ben rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to be rude, but he was used to this reaction when he told people who his parents were. “Keep your voice down!”  
“You’re Han Solo’s son?!” Rey hissed, her voice quickly filling with excitement. She couldn’t believe it! “And your mother-”  
“General Organa, yeah.”  
“Hooo my god!” She let out a bubbly giggle, her cool demeanor momentarily abandoned. “Your parents, they’re heroes!”  
“They are.”  
“Can I meet them?! Please!” She reached out across the table, gripping Ben’s hand. He was surprised at the gesture, and slightly disappointed. If his parents were nobodies, then she wouldn’t be holding his hand. It’s my fault, I should have gotten used to it by now, Ben told himself before nodding at Rey. “Sure, next time I see them, I’ll introduce you.”  
“Oh, thank you!” She rose from her seat and stepped around the table to give him a hug. He felt some of his resentment melt away. She was warm, and she smelled good. She fit around him like your favorite blanket, and unfortunately, she was pulling away. Ben had to make a conscious effort to hide the look of unbridled happiness that sat on his face in the aftermath of a hug. Rey’s lips parted slightly, as if she was about to say something. Before he got a chance to hear what that was, a voice crackled over a loudspeaker, calling all pilots to the command bridge for a mission briefing.  
“Your first mission! Come on, Black Sheep!” The excited pilot messed up his hair and urged him to follow.  
“That’s not my name!” Ben insisted, a smile tugging at his lips nonetheless.

…  
The bridge was never not buzzing with activity. Resistance officers crowded around blinking monitors, constantly emitting a low stream of chatter into their headsets. During briefings, the circular dip in the room swelled with pilots and technicians as they swarmed around the projector in the middle of the room, The machine casted a map in the air for all to see, bathing everyone nearby in an electric blue light, if they stood close enough. General Organa, who stood right next to the projector, looked to be formed from moonlight. Rey and Ben appeared just as she was beginning her address, shouldering their way into the crowd.  
“Our target is a First Order supply station on the border of the Outer Rim territories.” Leia began, her eyes sweeping over the faces of the young, eager pilots. “Coordinates have already been integrated into your nav-computers. Destruction of this station would severely limit the First Order’s mobility, and their ability to branch out from the Unknown Regions. We’ll be able to further direct and expect their movements. You won’t let me down, will you?” There was a resounding “NO!” from the crew on the bridge. It brought a smile to Leia’s face. “I didn’t think so. Red and cobalt squadron, get prepped for launch.”  
The room was alight with charged conversation as all personnel began to disperse. Rey was fired up, her eager footfalls carrying her to the hangar. She was so focused on her mission that she didn’t realize that Ben’s presence wasn’t with her. He was still on the bridge, feet firmly rooted to the floor. An icy chill pounded through his veins, and his chest was feeling more constricted with every breath. He was on the blue squadron. He hadn’t been chosen for the mission, he was being left behind. Why? I thought I was finally good enough. His fists balling up, Ben stepped forward to where his mother stood. She wouldn’t look him in the eye.  
“How was your first day?” Leia asked as she deactivated the glowing map.  
“Why wasn’t I chosen for the mission?” Ben questioned, his voice dripping with disappointment. It broke his mother’s heart to know that he was sad. She finally made eye-contact with him, and she grasped his hand.  
“Ben, you’re a brilliant pilot.”  
“Then why wasn’t I chosen?”  
“Because you’re my boy.” Her thumb stroked the back of his hand as she had done since he was a toddler. He was a fussy boy, but he was so easy to calm back then. Things weren’t so easy now. “It’s your first day, and I’m worried about sending you out on a mission so soon. I just don’t want you to get hurt.” Ben exhaled through his nose, letting go of his mother’s hand.  
“I’m not a boy anymore. I’m a man.”  
He turned his back on her, sharp footsteps echoing his inner malcontent as he made his way to the hangar. Most of the ships had already taken off at this point, the distant rumbling of their engines let the rookie pilot know that he wasn’t far behind. He climbed into the cockpit of his X-Wing with haste, ignoring the beeping of his BB unit. He ignited the engines, letting the roar drown out any reservations he would have had.

Ben wouldn’t be left behind again.


End file.
